The Convention for the Suppression of the Illicit Traffic in Dangerous Drugs was a drug control treaty signed in 1936.
Harry Anslinger representing the United States attempted to add provisions to criminalize all activities – cultivation, production, manufacture and distribution – related to the use of opium, coca (and its derivatives) and cannabis for non-medical and non-scientific purposes. Other countries objected to this proposal, so the Convention's focus remained on trafficking. The U.S. considered the final treaty to be too weak, and refused to sign it, fearing that it might have to weaken its own controls to comply with the treaty. The Convention therefore had little effect, although it was the first treaty to make certain drug offenses international crimes; all the previous treaties had dealt with regulating licit drug activity.
Famous quotes containing the words convention, suppression, illicit, traffic, dangerous and/or drugs:
“Mankind owes to the child the best it has to give.”
—United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989.
“A state that denies its citizens their basic rights becomes a danger to its neighbors as well: internal arbitrary rule will be reflected in arbitrary external relations. The suppression of public opinion, the abolition of public competition for power and its public exercise opens the way for the state power to arm itself in any way it sees fit.... A state that does not hesitate to lie to its own people will not hesitate to lie to other states.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“The anger
that my friends
planted in my heart
when they somehow found
a hole in it
ran off
like an illicit lover
as soon as I saw my man.”
—Hla Stavhana (c. 50 A.D.)
“There’s something about the dead silence of an office building at night. Not quite real. The traffic down below is something that didn’t have anything to do with me.”
—John Paxton (1911–1985)
“Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don’t want it.”
—Anthony Burgess (b. 1917)
“There is not much sense in suffering, since drugs can be given for pain, itching, and other discomforts. The belief has long died that suffering here on earth will be rewarded in heaven. Suffering has lost its meaning.”
—Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (b. 1926)